Color duplex flowmetry of internal carotid and vertebral arteries permits estimation of intravascular flow volumes and global cerebral blood flow volume (CBFV) by summing the flow volumes measured in each of the four extracranial vessels. Intravascular flow volumes were calculated as the product of angle-corrected time-averaged flow velocity and the cross-sectional area of the vessel. The reliability of this new method was tested in a prospective, intra- and interdiane, intra- and interobserver reproducibility study of 32 healthy subjects aged 7-57 years. In each subject, CBFV was tested by each observer twice on day 1 and once on day 2 in consecutive recordings. In each artery, both examiners found closely similar mean intravascular flow volumes. Intradiane interobserver reproducibility of CBFV was high on both days (correlation coefficient, CC, 0.90 and 0.85, p < or = 0.0001; coefficient of variance, CV, 10.0 and 10.4%, respectively), as was the interdiane comparison (CC = 0.81, p < or = 0.0001; CV < or = 13.3%). Intraobserver reproducibility was even higher. On both days, there was a progressive decrease in CBFV from each subject's first to the last examination within a 1-h examination period (day 1: 717 +/- 150 ml/min to 690 +/- 120 ml/min; difference, p < or = 0.05; day 2: 700 +/- 120 ml/min to 665 +/- 126 ml/min; difference, p < or = 0.01). This habituation effect was more pronounced in subjects with high initial CBFV. Reproducibility of CBFV is comparable to that of mean CBF measurements with 133Xe inhalation and H2 15(O) positron emission tomography techniques reported by other groups. This method makes serial bedside-monitoring of CBFV feasible without posing the risks of radiation exposure.
